The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1887-04-07
LITERARY CHAT.
Spec5aE correspondence Of tie Gotd Leaf.

C0ptCHbt COTItSjtOHttHto " tftC NOtto L|CfJ'
New YORK, March 90, 1887.
There was put into my hands the
other day a thin volume of pOems
beautifully bound in fooled Morocco
and printed for private circulation
among the friends of the author, a
brilliant and gifted woman who died
last summer, scarcely in her prime
Turning over its leaves one who knew
her sad story was able to read between
the lines and underneath the bitterness
of soul in which the lyrics must have
been written, although the sorrow they
breathe is too deep to find relief in bit
ter words. Some years ago the poet,
Miss NJ, while student in Agas-
Sis school at Cambridge, became en-
gagged to the son of one OF the proles-
s0rs at Harvard. Neither Harvard
University, where he was studying, nor
Heidelberg, where he was going for
professional training, would grant him
4 diploma as married man, yet he
was unwilling to go to Germany with
out having bound his affianced to him
by legal ties. She consented at last
to his urgency and the marriage was
celebrated privately, yet in an Episco-
pal chapel and in the presence Of the
families of the contracting parties. For
the first year or two after going abroad
the husband wrote to his young wife
who was still known under her maiden
name and who was devotedly attached
to him. Then by degrees his letters
became less frequent and the dreary
old story of deserti0n was repeated.
The wife refused to believe, for wo-
mans trust will outlive many hard
blows, until friend returning from
Europe brought proof of the recreant
husbands marriage with a foreign
singer.
She had meanwhile been as faithful
in thought as in deed. Her attract
iveness made her the recipient of many
attentions, but she rejected them all,
acting her part with a sweetness and
fortitude which won her devoted
friends of those she would not Counte-
nance as lovers. When the proof Of
her husbands baseness could no longer
be gainsaid, she obtained legal sepa-
ration, but she was wounded in her
very soul. She was a brilliant and
finely educated woman, with varied
gifts, and to the cultivation OF these
she devoted herself with feverish en-
ergy which told those who knew her
story of the fierCeness of the unrest
within. Her husband has never re-
visited this country.
If one is anxious to form the &C
quaintance of some famous author or
poet, he must visit the editorial cham
bers of leading publishing house.
Seating myself, the other day, in the
superb Diminished ''parlor elevator" at
the six story building on Union Square
(33 E. 18th ST., soon found myself
elevated to the fourth floor, and i'm
me6iately came face to face with the
gentlemanly bearings OF Col. Glider,
the literary editor of the Century. Ar
irving ut his private sanctum, | was
introduced to Miss Edith NJ. Thomas,
and to quote Mr.. elders remark,
<'one of the brightest literary women in
this country" When the late Mrs.
Helen Hunt Jackson gave encourage
ment to the poetical ASPIRATIONS of the
unknown Ohio girl, who sought an
audience with her one afternoon at
her hotel, she little dreamed of the
future in store for her young protege.